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Kobzar's Children: A Century of Untold Ukrainian Stories

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In the introduction to this collection of short historical fiction, memoirs and poems touching upon a century of the history of Ukrainian immigrant experience, Marsha Skrypuch writes the following:


"When you don't write your own stories, others will write them for you."

And in publishing this marvelous collection of stories she begins the process of putting the record straight. Like Marsha, I too grew up with the realization that I belonged essentially to an invisible and completely unknown ethnic group -- Ukrainians, whom no one seemed to have ever heard of, and if they had, they said things like -- "That's the same as Russian, isn't it?"

As Marsha explains in the foreword, the kobzars were Ukraine's blind, wandering minstrels, who in the ancient tradition of Homer memorized long epic historical poems that spoke of the great events of Ukrainian history, and in doing so kept a population that was largely illiterate in touch with their great heritage.

During Stalin's times they kept people apprised of the repressions and persecutions and famine in addition to their traditional role, and so they came to the notice of Josef Stalin, who called for a national conference of kobzars. Hundreds showed up, and all were shot. There are a few kobzars who survived to tell the tale, and a very few who carry on the tradition today.

Because Marsha does not speak Ukrainian, she did not have access to emigre literature that spoke of the immigrant experience, and of experiences in Ukraine. But Ukrainians are inveterate story tellers, and as fortune would have it, the writers of these tales are either witnesses themselves to the events they describe, or are children of parents who told vivid tales of their own experiences, and as such the works have a compelling and hypnotic interest.

I couldn't put the book down. I frankly had expected a charming work aimed at children, but how mistaken I was. Although this book is suitable for all ages capable of reading at this level, it is of no less interest to the adult reader as to the young reader. It never talks down to its audience. In the same way that I remember my own parents relating the many stories of our family, no punches are pulled. Harsh reality and horror and danger take their place alongside tales of humor, childhood pranks and misunderstandings.

Beginning in the early part of the century, the stories span everything from a memoir of homesteading in the early 1900's in the wilds of western Canada, to a first-hand horrifying account of a young child's suffering and survival during the Stalin-created Ukrainian famine genocide of 1933, in which at least seven million Ukrainians perished. Tales of helping out in a family grocery store take their place alongside a psychologically insightful meditation on the interior life of an elderly Ukrainian woman living in her memories while confined to a nursing home. One of the stories relates the shocking history of how Ukrainians were unjustly interned in hard labor camps by the Canadian government during WWI, and subjected to treatment that is sadly reminiscent of Soviet gulags. This is a chapter of immigrant history I knew absolutely nothing about. There's a delightful tale about the tragicomedy of attempts to move the grave of one family member from one cemetery to another, followed by a grim personal memoir of surviving Auschwitz. The stories span a century of experience, beginning in the early 1900's and ending with a charming Christmas time tale that takes place during the exciting days of the Orange Revolution.

Ukrainians do not talk down to their children. We do not protect them from the harsh realities of history and of repression. Perhaps this is why Americans and Canadians of Ukrainian descent are generally highly sensitive to any encroachments upon their freedoms and dangers gathering in the world. We have experienced, if not first-hand, then through the tales of our parents, the kinds of things that can happen if people forget their history.

As such, Marsha Skrypuch has done a great service by publishing this book. Not only has she introduced the literature and history of Ukraine to immigrants who may no longer be in touch with the language of their ancestors, but also she exposes the stories of these people to a wider American and Canadian audience.

This book must and will, by its very nature, find a wide audience. It is gripping, well-written, well-balanced, and paced with a mixture of lighter and darker topics, and in the end is a testament to the basic humanity that binds us all into one common human experience.

History comes alive when we read about the lives of individuals. What once existed only as a page in a history book or a phrase with a date attached, suddenly becomes a gripping personal drama that anyone can identify with.

Buy this book, read it. You don't have to be Ukrainian to thoroughly enjoy it and to profit by it. We are all enriched by enlarging our knowledge of history and the very human stories that make up that history.

The kobzars indeed live, and this book carries on that great Ukrainian tradition. Every country needs its kobzars.

I didn't know very much about Ukrainian immigrants, but this collection of fiction, poetry, and memoir has really opened my eyes. For one thing, it reminded me that life for so many people on this planet has been one of grim survival--and that's just the effort to farm an inhospitable land, let alone to deal with man's inhumanity. This story collection, while it has moments of humor ("The Red Boots" and "A Bar of Chocolate" spring to mind), is mostly poignant and at times haunting as it evokes events such as Stalin's famine-genocide against millions of Ukrainian farmers, an event punctuated by farcical displays of peasant well-being orchestrated and enacted for foreign journalists.

The challenges facing immigrants is a timeless message which has an unpleasantly real application for me today, since I live in a country where many people direct hostility toward Hispanic immigrants. Likewise, the internment of Ukrainian immigrants in Canada during World War I is reminiscent of the Japanese internment here in California during World War II. I was also reminded that, though the primary focus of the Nazi Holocaust was the Jews, other peoples, including Ukrainian and other political dissidents and resistance fighters, were also tortured and killed in death/slave camps.

It's nice that the book ends on a hopeful note, with a contemporary story about the Orange Revolution.

Kobzar's Children is not for young children, but for those Young Adult (and older) readers who are willing to consider the complexities of this world we live in and to focus on a less well-known era and people in history, I highly recommend this book.

The Kobzar's (storytellers) of the Ukraine died by Stalin's orders, as did their stories. A new generation of Kobzars emerged. In this title, a collection of short historical fiction, poems and memoirs, Kobzar's children chronicle the Ukrainian immigrant experience in Canada from 1905 to 2004--living through internment as enemy aliens, displacement, homesteading, concentration camps, and more. This magnificent collection is so absorbing, it is impossible to put it down.

Marsha Skrypuch has gifted readers with a mix of dark and light subjects that are intimate and totally absorbing. While enriching one's knowledge of Ukranian immigrant history, this collection gives testimony to the human experience unbounded by geography. Masterful!

Ms. Skrypuch's passion has always been writing stories, which capture real experiences that have been lost or suppressed--and, thus, this anthology came to be born. Within it is a century of untold stories--life stories and histories that were either falsified or suppressed while our parents and grandparents suffered in silence. We are Kobzar's children; like the wandering Kobzars of yesteryear, it's up to us to relate their untold stories.

Honored as a Canadian Ukrainian Woman of Influence and as an author of seven books for children and young adults, many of which have been nominated for numerous awards, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is editor of `Kobzar's Children: A Century of Untold Ukrainian Stories (`Kobzar's Children')' and contributor of two of its stories.

The author states that growing up, she could only find one Ukrainian book written in English, so she started to read Russian stories, Polish stories, and Jewish stories. As she read, a disturbing trend materialized: she found that Ukrainians were often portrayed with negative stereotypes--as buffoons, bullies, drunks, and murderers.

As an adult, she heard about the Kobzars--blind, wandering minstrels of Ukraine who memorized long epic poems, which had been passed down generation to generation. Their poetry captured the rich history, the folk tales, and the cultural identity of Ukraine.

During Stalin's regime, Kobzars intermingled the older tales with stories of Soviet repression, terror, and famine--contemporary stories. In the 1930s, Stalin called the first national conference of Kobzars in Ukraine--hundreds congregated--and then, Stalin had them all shot. He then rounded up Ukrainian artists, journalists, novelists, and playwrights, and murdered them, too.

For the Ukrainian, the word Kobzar has special meaning--Kobzar is the title of (Ukrainian bard) Taras Shevchenko's first collection of poems, which was published in 1840. Shevchenko is, in fact, known as The Kobzar. During the time of Stalin, Shevchenko's writings were deliberately falsified.

The publication of `Kobzar's Children' was sponsored by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Government of Canada through BPIDP, and the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko. The cover image is from the Library and Archives of Canada. Each of the twenty writings is accented by artistic design work by accomplished illustrator Fortunato Aglialoro, and photos throughout have been supplied in many cases by the authors.

Twelve Ukrainian-Canadian authors (from Quebec, Ontario, and Western Canada) collaborated on this anthology of memoirs, historical fiction, and poetry that chronicles the lives and struggles of Ukrainian immigrants to Canada during the past one hundred years (1905-2004).

This anthology is more than a collection; it's a social document that revives memories once deliberately forgotten. Events heretofore described in articles, come to life as characters take on a very personal persona. The topics are as varied as their lengths--the shortest being a poem placed prominently on one page, the longest being a story spanning twenty-two pages. The reading is engrossing, informative, and thought inducing.

'Kobzar's Children' begins in the early 1900s with a fascinating recital of a family's homesteading and concludes in 2004 with an engrossing historical fiction dealing with the very real, recent Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Although the recommended reading level is ages 9 through 12, nevertheless, the adult will also benefit from this rich reservoir of remembrances. To enhance your reading experience, each author (Kobzar's Child) is given a face by way of a photo and brief resume.

The days of Ms. Skrypuch's youthful encounters with hostile, derogatory portrayals of Ukraine and Ukrainians are slowly metamorphosizing, as the Internet exposes to the world the true beauty and culture of Ukraine.

On June 14, 2008, former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney gave a free concert in Kyiv, Ukraine before a live audience of 350,000 fans--it was broadcast simultaneously on giant screens in Odesa, Lviv, Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk, and on television, with an estimated ten million people watching. Although the 33-song concert started a half hour late due to the heavy pouring rains--nobody's spirits were dampened!

In the past, McCartney has mentioned Ukraine in a Beatles song, Back in the USSR, where he sings `the Ukraine girls really knock me out.' Also, several years ago during the concert in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sir Paul in response to a greeting of Ukrainian fans, suddenly took the microphone, and said: `I send all my love to you, Ukraine.'

Sir Paul McCartney took Ukrainian lessons for an hour, for he hoped to be able to speak to the audience. During his three-day stay in Kyiv, he opened a personal exhibition of his artistic works, (including 40 of his works at the Pincuk Art Centre). And, he biked Kyiv's streets seeing what his friends told him is a city of beauty with lots of historic places. His video is on YouTube--see it. Kobzar's Children who witnessed that concert will pass along their stories for generations to come.

'Kobzar's Children: A Century of Untold Ukrainian Stories' should be in libraries worldwide--both public and personal! This is must read/must own material. A definite five-stars plus!

Addendum: Readers, you're invited to visit each of my reviews--most of them have photos that I took in Ukraine (over 600)--you'll learn lots about Ukraine and Ukrainians. The image gallery shows smaller photos, which are out of sequence. The preferable way is to see each review through my profile page since photos that are germane to that particular book/VHS/DVD are posted there with notes and are in sequential order.

To visit my reviews: click on my pseudonym, Mandrivnyk, to get to my profile page; click on the tab called review; scroll to the bottom of the section, and click on see all reviews; click on each title, and on the left-hand side, click on see all images. The thumbnail images at the top of the page show whether photos have notes; roll your mouse over the image to find notes posted.

Also, you're invited to visit my Listmania lists, which have materials sorted by subject matter.

Kids and those young at heart may enjoy viewing 69 photos, which I took while traveling throughout Ukraine in 1993 and 1994--to see them, please visit my review of How the Animals Built Their House and Other Stories. Most of my reviews have photos--over 600. Additionally, the website of Encyclopedia of Ukraine has lots of info about Ukrainian and Ukrainians.

The modern Kobzars who wrote the stories in this book do an invaluable service for readers everywhere. They bring together a group of tales that gives vivid life to the Ukranian immigrant experience. The unique, remarkable and sometimes horrifying events are related with such clear voices that the result is an uplifting testament to the power of the people who have lived these lives. For all its disturbing imagery, in the end, reading this collection is ultimately a celebration of the Ukranian immigrant experience, as told in the many and varied voices of Ukranian storytellers.